Quote:
Originally Posted by Suzles
Well a simple vaccine would have stopped the pigs getting sick in the first place.
|
Not necessarily.
Like other viruses, the FMD virus continually evolves and mutates, thus one of the difficulties in vaccinating against FMD is the huge variation between and even within
serotypes. There is no cross-protection between serotypes (meaning that a vaccine for one serotype will not protect against any others) and in addition, two
strains within a given serotype may have
nucleotide sequences that differ by as much as 30% for a given gene. This means that FMD
vaccines must be highly specific to the strain involved. Vaccination only provides temporary
immunity that lasts from months to years.